From all appearances, Jason Collins is an exemplary role model. The Washington Wizards center, now a free agent, graduated from Stanford in 2001. He has appeared in 500 NBA games as a bruising defender. And on Monday, he had the courage to announce, eloquently, that he is gay — the first active male athlete in a major U.S. team sport to do so.

But they're not everywhere. Despite Collins' sterling credentials, the Boy Scouts of America would consider him unqualified for leadership. Even under a proposed change that would for the first time open Scouting to openly gay boys, gay adults of both sexes would remain excluded.

Journalist Anderson Cooper need not apply. Nor would Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., or entertainer Ellen DeGeneres be accepted as den mothers. But Penn State's Jerry Sandusky? Up until he was exposed as a serial child abuser, he'd have been A-OK.

The proposed change, to be voted on by the Scouts' national council this month, would at least bring the Scouts' all-out prejudice down a notch. Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, acknowledged it as progress. But it is still an unsatisfactory and illogical half-step.

This is not a constitutional question. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that as a private organization, the Boy Scouts have a right to exclude gays. Freedom of association, the court appropriately held, presupposes a freedom not to associate. Religious groups, which sponsor about 70% of local chapters, have that same right. But just because groups are legally free to discriminate doesn't mean it is the right thing to do. An organization that preaches kindness, honesty and good citizenship ought to be above prejudice.

As Scouting has clung to its anti-gay exclusion, the world has changed. Other youth groups have successfully adopted non-discrimination policies. The U.S. military has jettisoned the unfair "don't ask, don't tell" policy. A petition started by an Eagle Scout with lesbian parents has garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures calling on Scouting to drop its ban.

The worst thing about the latest proposal is its implicit endorsement of a discredited stereotype: that including gays would lead to an explosion of sexual abuse. According to the American Psychological Association, "Homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men." In fact, many pedophiles, people like Sandusky, are husbands and fathers.

The Scouts' latest proposal is akin to telling Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's color barrier, that he could be a player but never a manager. Or telling a gay soldier he could join the Army but never be a general.

The best that can be said for the proposal is that opening Scouting to all boys would fight prejudice in a new generation of Scouts, hastening the day when people like Jason Collins would no longer be unwelcome.